Ready!

I just finished the first draft of a new book titled, "Sex Therapy". I'm going over rewrites at this time. My least favorite part. Why? I don't know. I get so excited to finish a project and I'm ready to let the world see it.

Thank goodness I don't just act on such feelings. Sometimes I get caught up in writing, it's hard to catch my mistakes. I have to learn to slow down.

I didn't drink any tea this morning but I may have some later. I did enjoy a wonderful Georgia Peach muffin. That would have went great with my Ginger Peach tea.

Tea Of The Day: None :(

Fans

It's the reason why many of us write. To share our words with everyone and to have people let us know that they enjoyed what they read.

The other day I received an email from a young lady that suffers from the same illness that I had. She told me that one of her favorite entries in Diary of A Sick Chick was The 47th Street Bus. It makes me happy when other people read my work and feel themselves identify with my stories.

The 47th Street Bus is a fictional short story about a man who finds himself instantly attracted a young lady on the bus. He goes back and forth in his mind on whether he should approach her or not. Soon, they get up to get off the bus but the young lady has a cane and she moves like "her bones were made of glass".

I saw myself in that story when I was single. I didn't feel beautiful anymore. I didn't feel that others desired me, especially when they see my cane.

I thought that my love life was surely over and that men would give me pitiful looks before turning away. In the story, the man continues to admire the young lady but feels more hesitant to approach her.

Anyway, I really enjoy hearing from the fans.

Tea of The Day: Acai Berry

eBooks

I wasn't truly convinced on this ideal of eBooks at first. I like going to a brick and mortar store, drinking a hot beverage that I could hardly pronounce, sitting on the floor reading books. I'd sometimes bring my laptop along for the ride. I'd feel like a real writer with all the information in the world right there in that bookstore. My daughter would be not too far away from me in the Children's section, picking out books that she wanted to read.


When I saw the first Kindle, I thought it was just a fad. But I'm sure my parents thought television was going to be the same thing. It is probably one of the most important inventions of our time.


Now at one in the morning in South Korea, I can download any book that I want (granted there is an eVersion available) and read anywhere that I want to. If I wanted to read seven books at one time I could do so on ONE eReader. I don't have a big enough purse to fit seven books along with my makeup. Hell, I'd be carrying a suitcase.


There is another advantage to the eBook.


I was reading on an Amazon discussion page the other day and it was a bunch of readers complaining about how BAD some of the independently published books were. They were crying that these books so desperately needed editors, the writing was something they would've written in the first grade, the formatting was horrible, etc.


But then again these books were priced anywhere from 99 cents to $2.99. One reader complained that these books would have publishers if they were good enough to do so rather than go down the route of self-publishing.


That's where I found myself getting angry.


Many writers have died, waiting a hundred years for an agent to pick up their work. Some of the world's greatest writers weren't necessarily discovered by an agent or a giant publishing house. There is so much talent out there in the world and they were being ignored for the names of a selected few.


Now that we have ePublishing; an invention that could make my cat an author in fifteen minutes. When you have such a free format, there are a lot of undiscovered gems out there that fought for so long to grab the attention of hardworking and overworked agents trying to secure big deals for their important clients, leaving the smaller names, so to speak, to fend for themselves. Hell I've seen some authors sell their own books out the trunks of their cars.


SO yeah...you're going to get thousands and thousands of horrible books that should have never seen the light of day. But there are thousands of undiscovered gems out there for you to enjoy at any time of day or time of year that you wish.

Evernote

Evernote is where I keep ideas for stories and articles that I write. It will save entire clippings of items and pictures that you find on the internet and store it for you. I have seven different notebooks in my Evernote that EFFORTLESSLY sync to my Android phone and computer! Even my iPad! I recommend it for writers to use if you want to keep your notes organized. I used to keep all of my notes in Microsoft One Note. Ingenious program but I had it installed on my infamous Dell laptop. I lost everything, including some notes for upcoming screenplays that I've been working on. I had the plots and characters fleshed out from here to next Sunday...all gone.

WRITE WHENEVER YOU CAN

It is 5am and I'm watching I Love Lucy, one of my favorite shows in the world. I'm sure I've seen each episode over twenty times each. What else do I find myself doing at this hour? Writing. I have been diagnosed with Lupus and it is a disease that keeps you in pain and battling fatigue constantly.

Since I'm not working at the time, I try to imagine a world where I can make all the money that I need to support myself and my daughter. Notice that I stated that I want to support myself. If my writing ever took me to a place where I can throw in a few Louis Vuitton bags, I could very well be the most happiest person in the world.

It has always been my dream that I write for a living. To use my creativity to entertain the world. Not every single one of you are going to like me. (I wish you would because I'm some kind of awesome, a loyal friend, and I make the best mac and cheese.) I'm putting the editors touch on one manuscript now but I'm so scared. I can best describe it as this: you write a book all the way to the end, loving your characters, the plot, you set the stage pretty much.

The first thing that comes to mind after the proverbial, The End, is how in the world did I manage to string along a bunch of crap for the past hundred or so pages? The story sounded great in my head as I wrote it down, so how didn't I translate that into words? In my opinion that is what makes a writer a great writer compared to a mediocre writer. Can you take a concept or a unique idea, and then breathe life into that idea or concept and carry it all the way to the end? Can you create convincing scenes that motivate your characters to spring into action without sounding contrived?

Ah...the joys of being a writer. Once you put your heart and soul into something, it's hard to see it get ripped to shreds by the anonymity of people hiding behind a computer screen. But in the end, it's the readers that get to decide whether or not you should quit your day job to make this a full time gig. That's what makes writing a wonderful profession.

Tea of The Day: Orange Spice

So I Drink A Lot of Tea

I have somewhere around thirty boxes of any kind of tea that you can think of. Since I have plenty of health issues, I had to forgo most writers drink of choice; wine. So I drink tea and lots of it.

My favorite is Ginger Peach tea that you can find at pretty much any Panera Bread. I like fruity flavors, which is what my mother mostly drank when I was a little girl. There are times when I spice things up with a rare brand of Chai or one of my other favorites, Morning Thunder. Wakes me up in the morning.

I'm running out of space in my cupboard for all my teas so.....I better get to this writing thing, huh? TEA OF THE DAY: GINGER PEACH TEA